Seahawks Edge Kent Island on Tiebreaker

BERLIN- After a knock-down, drag out match last week between Bayside Conference rivals Stephen Decatur and Kent Island, it was the Seahawks who declared the winners after officials sorted out several steps in the tiebreaker protocols.

Decatur and Kent Island squared off last week in an early season showdown that will likely be a preview of the conference championship later this season. After dropping the first match at 145, the Seahawks got off to a quick start with wins in the middle of the lineup by Kaelan Patterson at 152, Andrew Borradaile at 160 and Jared King at 170.

Kent Island took the match at 182, but the Seahawks swept three straight including Adam Bargar at 195, Ethan Eibl at 220 and Ryan Kail at 285 to jump out to a 27-6 lead. A pin by Kent Island at 106 cut the lead to 27-12, but Decatur’s Nate Rosenblatt responded at 113 and pushed the lead back to 33-12. For Decatur, it was only a matter of trying to hang on from there on out, but Kent Island came back fiercely.

The Buccaneers won at 120, 126 and 132 to cut the lead to 33-30 with just one match remaining. Kent Island’s Zach Smith faced Decatur’s Logan Smith trailing by just three points and earned a 7-4 decision to tie the overall match at 33-33.

There was some confusion at the end of the match about who was the winner as the officials sorted through the tiebreaking procedures. Finally, it was decided Decatur was the winner based on the tiebreaking criteria. Meanwhile, the Seahawks will compete this weekend in the 18th Annual Bob Rowe Memorial Classic this weekend at the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center in an event in which they have enjoyed recent success. Last year, the Seahawks finished fourth overall out of the tough field of 17 of the top programs in the region and collected a handful of first-place individual finishes and placed in several other weight classes.